Persistent user personalization

Abstract

A system and method for facilitating personalization of one or more multi-instance software applications in a networked enterprise computing environment. An example method includes providing a first user option to specify one or more adjustments to a rendering of a software application; identifying one or more servers that are employed to obtain content for the rendering; and selectively providing information specifying the one or more adjustments to the one or more servers, such that the one or more adjustments appear in a rendering provided when a user accesses the software application from any of the one or more servers. In a more specific embodiment, the information specifying the one or more adjustments to the one or more servers include customization metadata (also called personalization metadata) stored on a first server, called the gateway server.

I claim: 
     
       1. A method for facilitating customizing of one or more software applications in an enterprise computing environment, the enterprise computing environment including one or more client devices in communication with one or more gateway servers in a server cluster, the server cluster also comprising two or more content servers, the two or more content servers being networked to the one or more gateway servers, wherein the one or more gateway servers execute webpage software, wherein the webpage software provides webpage information accessible to the one or more client devices, wherein one or more servers of the server cluster perform the method comprising:
 in response to a user login input, establishing a first login session of a first instance of a multi-instance software application hosted on one or more of any servers in the server cluster; 
 providing a first user option to specify one or more adjustments to a rendering of the first instance of the software application associated with the first login session, wherein at least one of the one or more adjustments relates to content supplied by a particular content server of the two or more content servers that is unique to the particular content server and is not shared during the first login session between any of the two or more content servers; 
 identifying two or more specific content servers of the server cluster that are employed to obtain content for the rendering during the first login session; 
 based on determining that any of the one or more adjustments do not relate only to content provided by a gateway server to which a client device is connected in the first login session,
 selectively pushing customization metadata, specifying the one or more adjustments, to two or more content servers of the two or more specific content servers, thereby storing redundant copies of the customization metadata specifying the one or more adjustments on the two or more content servers of the two or more specific content servers; 
 
 initiating a second instance of the multi-instance software application that is operationally different from the first instance of the software application after the one or more adjustments have been made during the first login session in response to the first user option; and 
 retrieving and merging pushed customization metadata from at least one of the two or more content servers of the two or more specific content servers, on which redundant copies of the customization metadata are stored, to enable the second instance of the software application to implement, to the rendering during a second login session of the multi-instance software application established in response to another user login input, the one or more adjustments made during the first login session. 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1 , wherein a User Interface (UI) display screen of the software application is adapted to display the rendering and is user accessible via one of the one or more client devices. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the customization metadata is stored on one of the one or more gateway servers. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 3 , further including:
 receiving user input to customize a User Interface (UI) display screen that displays content derived from plural servers in the server cluster; and 
 synchronizing the customization metadata between the plural servers, wherein each of the plural servers is adapted to provide a portion of content that is user accessible via an aggregated UI display screen. 
 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 4 , further including:
 accumulating webpage metadata from the plural servers, resulting in accumulated metadata; 
 combining the accumulated metadata with synchronized user customization metadata; and 
 employing the combined metadata to render the aggregated UI display screen. 
 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 1 , further including providing the first user option to specify one or more adjustments via a User Interface (UI) display screen rendered in response to communication of the client device with the gateway server to which the client device is connected. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 1 , further including providing second user option to access a UI screen presenting aggregated content from plural servers of the server cluster. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 7 , further including automatically accessing the customization metadata for each application of the server cluster for which content and functionality thereof is to be rendered in an aggregated User Interface (UI) display screen. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 8 , wherein the retrieving and merging pushed customization metadata comprises collecting accessed customization metadata, and omitting redundant customization metadata from collected customization metadata, resulting in merged customization metadata in response thereto. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 9 , further including collecting content to be rendered via the aggregated UI display screen from one or more servers of the server cluster, resulting in collected content in response thereto. 
     
     
       11. The method of  claim 10 , further including employing the merged customization metadata and the collected content to facilitate rendering the aggregated UI display screen. 
     
     
       12. The method of  claim 7 , wherein the software application includes:
 an interaction hub running on a first server of the server cluster; 
 a financials application running on a second server of the server cluster; 
 a human resources application running on a third server of the server cluster; and 
 an enterprise learning application running on a fourth server of the server cluster. 
 
     
     
       13. The method of  claim 1 , wherein the customization metadata describes personalizations made to an aggregated User Interface (UI) display screen and is pushed to all servers that act as content sources for content presented via the UI display screen. 
     
     
       14. The method of  claim 13 , further including:
 employing a content server to adjust UI display screen content and customization information; and 
 employing an access gateway server to:
 collect UI display screen metadata with customization data applied for the access gateway server; 
 get UI display screen metadata from UI display screen metadata handlers in all content servers serving content for the aggregated UI display screen; 
 merge UI display screen metadata and customization metadata and remove duplicate data; 
 merge UI display screen content (removing duplicate content), resulting in merged UI display screen content; and 
 employ merged UI display screen metadata, customization data, and merged content to generate UI display screen markup. 
 
 
     
     
       15. An apparatus for facilitating customization of one or more software applications in an enterprise computing environment, the enterprise computing environment including one or more client devices in communication with one or more gateway servers in a server cluster, the server cluster also comprising two or more content servers, the two or more content servers being networked to the one or more gateway servers, wherein the one or more gateway servers execute webpage software, wherein the webpage software provides webpage information accessible to one or more client devices, the apparatus comprising one or more servers of the server cluster configured to perform the following acts:
 in response to a user login input, establishing a first login session of a first instance of a multi-instance software application hosted on one or more of any servers in the server cluster; 
 providing a first user option to specify one or more adjustments to a rendering of the first instance of the software application associated with the first login session, wherein at least one of the one or more adjustments relates to content supplied by a particular content server of the two or more content servers that is unique to the particular content server and is not shared during the first login session between any of the two or more content servers; 
 identifying two or more specific content servers of the server cluster that are employed to obtain content for the rendering during the first login session; 
 based on determining that any of the one or more adjustments do not relate only to content provided by a gateway server to which a client device is connected in the first login session,
 selectively pushing customization metadata, specifying the one or more adjustments, to two or more content servers of the two or more specific content servers, thereby storing redundant copies of the customization metadata specifying the one or more adjustments on the two or more content servers of the two or more specific content servers; 
 
 initiating a second instance of the multi-instance software application that is operationally different from the first instance of the software application after the one or more adjustments have been made during the first login session in response to the first user option; and 
 retrieving and merging pushed customization metadata from at least one of the two or more content servers of the two or more specific content servers, on which redundant copies of the customization metadata are stored, to enable the second instance of the software application to implement, to the rendering during a second login session of the multi-instance software application established in response to another user login input, the one or more adjustments made during the first login session. 
 
     
     
       16. A non-transient tangible storage medium including instructions executable by one or more servers of a server cluster for facilitating customization of one or more software applications in an enterprise computing environment, the enterprise computing environment including one or more client devices in communication with one or more gateway servers in the server cluster, the server cluster also comprising two or more content servers, the two or more content servers being networked to the one or more gateway servers, wherein the one or more gateway servers execute webpage software, wherein the webpage software provides webpage information accessible to one or more client devices, the tangible storage medium including instructions for:
 in response to a user login input, establishing a first login session of a first instance of a multi-instance software application hosted on one or more of any servers in a network of servers in the server cluster; 
 providing a first user option to specify one or more adjustments to a rendering of the first instance of the software application associated with the first login session, wherein at least one of the one or more adjustments relates to content supplied by a particular content server of the two or more content servers that is unique to the particular content server and is not shared during the first login session between any of the two or more content servers; 
 identifying two or more specific content servers of the server cluster that are employed to obtain content for the rendering during the first login session; 
 based on determining that any of the one or more adjustments do not relate only to content provided by a gateway server to which a client device is connected in the first login session,
 selectively pushing customization metadata, specifying the one or more adjustments, to two or more content servers of the two or more specific content servers, thereby storing redundant copies of the customization metadata specifying the one or more adjustments on the two or more content servers of the two or more specific content servers; 
 
 initiating a second instance of the of the multi-instance software application that is operationally different from the first instance of the software application after the one or more adjustments have been made during the first login session in response to the first user option; and 
 retrieving and merging pushed customization metadata from at least one of the two or more content servers of the two or more specific content servers, on which redundant copies of the customization metadata are stored, to implement, to the rendering during a second login session of the multi-instance software application established in response to another user login input, the one or more adjustments made during the first login session. 
 
     
     
       17. The apparatus of  claim 15 , wherein the customization metadata describes personalizations made to an aggregated User Interface (UI) display screen and is pushed to all servers that act as content sources for content presented via the UI display screen. 
     
     
       18. The apparatus of  claim 17 , further including:
 employing a content server to adjust UI display screen content and customization information; and 
 employing an access gateway server to:
 collect UI display screen metadata with customization data applied for the access gateway server; 
 get UI display screen metadata from UI display screen metadata handlers in all content servers serving content for the aggregated UI display screen; 
 merge UI display screen metadata and customization metadata and remove duplicate data; 
 merge UI display screen content (removing duplicate content), resulting in merged UI display screen content; and 
 employ merged UI display screen metadata, customization data, and merged content to generate UI display screen markup. 
 
 
     
     
       19. The storage medium of  claim 16 , wherein the customization metadata describes personalizations made to an aggregated User Interface (UI) display screen and is pushed to all servers that act as content sources for content presented via the UI display screen. 
     
     
       20. The storage medium of  claim 19 , further including instructions for:
 employing a content server to adjust UI display screen content and customization information; and 
 employing an access gateway server to:
 collect UI display screen metadata with customization data applied for the access gateway server; 
 get UI display screen metadata from UI display screen metadata handlers in all content servers serving content for the aggregated UI display screen; 
 merge UI display screen metadata and customization metadata and remove duplicate data; 
 merge UI display screen content (removing duplicate content), resulting in merged UI display screen content; and 
 employ merged UI display screen metadata, customization data, and merged content to generate UI display screen markup.